Wedding Photography Weekend

Lesson 38 of 49

The Contract

Wedding Photography Weekend

Lesson 38 of 49

The Contract

Lesson Info

The Contract

so it's at this point you know say does this what you're looking for and they're like yes it sounds awesome so we either bust out the contracts in person or for booking them over the phone um you know we'll send them the contract online and so we want to do is we want teo go over a couple of bullet points that we have kind of added to our contract through experience that might help some of you with your contract experiences of course we recommend that you hire a lawyer and make sure that it is legit and if you do get taken to court that it's legit but we wanted to cover a few items of what we include first of all food is very important we need to take care of ourselves on the wedding day so what we do is we put in our contract you know we asked that three plates of food are provided for us you know if you have any zach has something they don't go this an extensive detail with a climb no no no no no no this is just side yeah this is for you guys zack has some weird food allergies so we ...

make sure it's listed there and we ask that were served at the same time that the wedding guests are served if not before sometimes the venue will give us the food when they're done serving the guests so by the time we sit down and eat everyone's done in the events are starting and then we don't get to eat because we need to start shooting events subcontract is also a full model release allowing us to post their images anywhere we want and use them for any kind of marketing materials because you never want to go back and forth of the client asks we have shot a few weddings for some higher profile clients and they always have it if you do that they're going to have someone that will look through it ask for changes we'll gladly make those changes so we just put that in there so somebody can't go on and I was gonna be on the first page your website it's there it's in the model release you know we also put in there some catastrophic thing happens and we lose our legs and eyesight or something we will find a replacement at our expense and we'll pay for it we'll make sure that someone's gonna be there qualified to shoot you winning and for us we clarify our contract that our focus is the bride and groom were not going to be going around and we say this nicely of course we're not going to be going around shooting every single guest at every single table unless they ask us to yeah our focus is the bride and groom and whatever stories happened around so we say in a really nice way you know our focus of the wedding day is the events happening around you and we will be following you if you want additional coverage of you know uncle bob sitting in the corner and then we recommend that you hire an additional photographer for that coverage so then they can't come to us and be like you never got a photo of my best friends sarah who was sitting in a corner the whole night you know like so sucking her thumb also lost images this is obviously something that could potentially happen luckily it's never happened to us but we put in there if something happens beyond our control you know if the card's somehow get erased or if we get in an accident on the way back and our car starts on fire and the images get burned up you can't sue us like I'm sorry we're going to do everything we can to control the protection of those images but if something happens it's not our fault and we've also added in there any gunshot sessions sometimes they book a session but then they never schedule it with us andi put an expiration date on that if you haven't ordered your album and six months or we haven't done the session six months it expires so we don't want this hanging over our heads for two and a half years absolutely so as we're meeting with our clients and uh hopefully things go splendidly well by the time they get to the meeting they're sold on us they want to book us and they do but whether they do or not and reclined that leaves our house that comes to a meaning gets this book and what we're trying to do here is kind of twofold we want to show our clients like what tim sanders it says is that we actually have compassion we care about something more than just their wedding day this is a book that journey and iran were engaged called the most important year my susan degrees and bobby wu um but it's absolutely awesome book on one side it's the most important in a woman's life and on the other side it's the most important in a man's life so it's kind of a book they read as an engaged couple go through together it's all about building the foundation of a marriage you know you're like laying down the bottom line of it and it's a it's a book that jodi and I really impacted us and made our marriage better so we put a hand written note and they're saying hey we read this book when you're engaged we hope it in pack c guys we've put it in our little great photography now will be zach and jodi major old bags of course now we just change your brand two days and you say even more important than wedding photography is your marriage and you know we we want to make a difference we don't want to just shoot photos of people and they have great photos but in the end it doesn't really matter like we want to make people's lives better and we want to make if we can have some role in making the couples who we shoot or even don't shoot and they come through our doors and we don't book them if we can make their marriage is better than it's worth it for us and that happens to be a great marketing tool as well because we're saying we care about your life being better remember how can we make someone's life and wedding photography can't make somebody's life better marriage is even cooler so we had a question I think from the crowd yeah question about the contract and from a rod or am photography with the contract if the bride and groom is not happy with the model release and they don't want their photos to be shared public how do you what do you do with that and do you charge them extra no definitely not you know we've had a number of different clients that have you know we shot a wedding that was published in people magazine for a very famous country music artist daughter um they're people went through and sort of got in our entire contract you know in a nutshell way weren't allowed to publish images in certain areas and we want to be is accommodating as possible yes it's great if we can get out there and and mark it on facebook and put him on our website and all that stuff but more really more importantly once a client becomes our client whatever is most important that becomes the most important us and if their privacy is very important that's great we're not going to charge them extra do anything extra will adjust that contract as long as it is within reach yeah right away going up to the personalized experience of bringing people into your own home what if there's quite a few people wondering if you could go over how to meet in a public location like a coffee shop I think the biggest step is like we had mentioned put your arms in a chair make sure you find a corner sometimes it's so hard when there is music blazing so sometimes even finding a local coffee shop as opposed to a chain that has music playing and then make sure that there backs are to the door that there facing the wall so they are not distracted by people walking back and forth you could be distracted with that you want their full attention so I would definitely remember a za great example teo johnny mentioned this but um we had raised our prices in two thousand eight we're going through a lot of price increases you know very quickly almost too fast and we had just raise our prices to start at three thousand dollars and it did include anything in the package which was a huge joke for us so the same package that two weeks ago was twenty seven hundred dollars was now starting over forty five hundred dollars and remember the client was a great referral from atlanta we met at starbucks sitting in the corner starbuck a teeny little starbucks and it's loud and greece is going and we're trying to be overly engaged as much as we can and it was the first time we've had our pricing which was a pretty heavy price pricing even even for national at the time and remember sliding you know we have the whole meeting and we're nervous and we're scared and we kind of slit our pricing across the table and judy and I are like gods and they ended up booking our top package sixty five hundred bucks and it was like we were just so excited and realised we could if we knew this at starbucks imagine if we have a little tv studio space where control everything once we finally it can afford to buy a home after booking enough weddings then oh my gosh we could really control this space and make it a dynamic experience so you can do it at starbucks or go to their house people are very comfortable in their own home and do it right there their house one more quick question um is from uh another lorraine lorraine ram the right ray also so is it bad to have your priceless on your website is it better to make them contact first I think it depends I think there's I think personally I think the price list like everything you offer should never be on your website just because it's overwhelming and they don't know what a archival metallic print you know like they don't know what that stuff is so it's to move I think listen your price on their depends what kind of photography market you're out there to serve we are at a higher price plane with one of the highest in nashville but um and we could live if we listed our pricing out there the problem is there's a lot of people would come to it and they'd be like oh I can't afford that and then they'd walk away but we're not remember we are not serving the high end market we're serving someone who values photography so sometimes they don't realize they can afford us until they get on the phone with us so if you're out there to serve a high end market and like put seven grand on your website or whatever you charge and then that'll keep away a lot of increase and wasting your time with people who can't afford you but for us we don't want to put our pricing on there because some people can afford us and they don't know it yet right we've had many clients you know as an example we had a bride one time who came in and initially spent thirty eight hundred bucks which was our starting price point in two thousand ten spent thirty eight hundred dollars a start spent twelve thousand five hundred on the day after the wedding so she thought she was gonna spend three four five thousand the most and she spent twelve and a half so the reason she made that jump is because we kept demonstrating value and showing this is a great great there's a lot of reasons to buy these products so demonstrating value for us is key but you know like journey mention kevin swan his brand is kevin swan luxury weddings what do you think he does hyeon weddings drives a bmw when he shows up at your wedding so he's trying to create a statement with the brands think this is for high end writes only and he's reaching a sliver of an audience and it says seventy five hundred dollars to start on his website and going to say to you like julia woods she and her husband on a portrait studio in illinois is it and weddings yeah weddings importance and something that she said that I love is that clients will spend three to four more times than they think will initially spend when they see the value of it so coming in they're like shoot I'm going to spend thirty eight hundred bucks in my wedding and that's that that's what my budgets for but then afterwards and they've had the experience with us and they see all my word I can have this amazing album with all of my memories in it for you remember for years to come then they're willing to spend more so often times when we just put our pricing up front it can really um turn away clients that you could actually book

Class Description

Being a successful wedding photographer isn’t just about taking gorgeous shots, it’s about creating an incredible experience for your clients. If a bride feels great about the services you provide—from your first meeting to your wedding day demeanor to the final delivery of the album—then she’ll be a happy customer for life and recommend you to her vast network of friends and family.

Zach and Jody Gray not only produce beautiful photos, they take great pains to ensure that every aspect of the wedding day is well planned and executed. In this weekend course that includes actual shoots of a bride and groom, Zach and Jody cover all the components of wedding photography, everything from marketing your business to finding the perfect lighting sources to posing your subjects to picking the best shots.

By describing their humble beginnings and explaining how their modest start-up grew into a thriving business with clients across the country, Zach and Jody will inspire you to pursue your own wedding photography dreams.

a Creativelive Student

I have two words to use to review this first day of the class. The first word starts with an F, so I can't use it here. The second word is Awesome. There was a technical glitch partway into it, which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. To have thousands of people watching the live stream and then it dies for a whole hour. Ouch. I was feeling like I would just wait and watch the whole thing later, as I purchased it before it started, but I tuned in this afternoon and watched some more. Wow. Thank you Zach and Jody. I have been learning so much from people whose work I admire, and who inspire me, and I put it all to great use. (My girlfriend told me so, so I know it's true.) The hour I watched after lunch was PACKED with GREAT info, and I am so glad I bought the $99 package beforehand. But if the rest of the weekend is as info-packed as the hour I caught this afternoon, even $150 is money well spent. This is how you go from good to great. Take that knowledge and move forward and don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it.
Thank for putting this event on, and I look forward to downloading the videos when they are up!

a Creativelive Student

Great class. I didn't get catch it all but what I did was fantastic. I had an opportunity to attend a workshop they did last year in Nashville at Dury's and it was great, so knew this was going to be extra special with 3 days to work with instead of about 6 or 7 hours. I plan on purchasing the class and using this great info to help me do my first wedding shoot in March. They have inspired me and given me courage to press on. Thanks, Creative Live and thanks to Zach and Jody.

a Creativelive Student

A great couple who truly deserve to be where they are at! They did the research, read, set goals and accomplished them!..as you know it isn't easy to follow through with your own goals! They have passion for what they love to do! CreativeLive you are the BEST! And you keep getting better and better! I have learned so much from all your workshops! I feel like I work for CreativeLive as I tell so many people about who you are! Wish I lived closer, I would be knocking your door down for a job!! Thank you all so very much!! You are a gift to me!